Yikes! It’s almost October and you’re way, way behind on updating your Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan. You do that right? Your team, your board, and key volunteers look ahead at least three years, and every fall, you update the plan by one year. Yes? So your plan for 2019-2021 is due soon.

Warning! “Sameness isn’t strategy. It is a recipe for mediocrity.”

That’s the cautionary wisdom from Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin. They note: “Every industry has tools and practices that become widespread and generic. Some organizations define strategy as benchmarking against competition and then doing the same set of activities but more effectively. Sameness isn’t strategy. It is a recipe for mediocrity.”

In the S.W.O.T. section of your updated strategic plan, are you simply refreshing last year’s revision of the previous year’s inadequate research—or are you seriously addressing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats with current trends, wisdom, and discernment?

Barna Trends 2018 will help! I was privileged to be part of a board planning retreat earlier this year that leveraged this invaluable book. Facilitated by Rick Bee, a board member at Christian Community Credit Union, the planning session looked at dozens of trends from the Barna book. (And…my deep thanks to Rick for sharing his notes with my eNews readers!)

MOBILE PHONE TRENDS:• 70% of parents sleep with their phones, but only 10% say that social media is the last thing they do each night.• 62% of parents check their phone in the first hour of the day.• Of the above group, 74% are checking email first thing in the morning, 51% are reading or sending texts, 48% are on social media, and 36% are reading the news.

WORLDVIEW TRENDS:• Only 17% of Christians who consider their faith important, and attend church regularly, actually have a “biblical worldview” (as defined by Barna).• 33% agree that if you do good—you will get good; and if you do bad—you will get bad.• 28% agree that all people pray to the same god or spirit—no matter what name they use for that spiritual being.• 23% agree that many religions can lead to eternal life; there is no “one true” religion. Of that group, Millennials and Gen X agree with that view more than others.

HOW WOULD YOU GIVE $100?• 64% would give $100 to a domestic child in need—not a child living overseas.• However, Millennials are the most interested age group in giving to international needs.

PASTORS AT RISK OF BURNOUTBarna assessed burnout risk for pastors using 11 factors. “A pastor is low risk if they do not meet any of the factors, medium risk if they meet criteria for one of the factors, and high risk if they meet three or more of the factors.” Here are five of the 11 risk factors: • “Their primary day-to-day tasks do not fit their calling or gifts.” • “Tenure at their current church has been a disappointment.” • “Less confident in their calling today than when they began ministry.” • “Have suffered from depression sometime during their ministry.” • “Frequently feel emotionally or mentally exhausted.”

Similar to Barna Trends 2017 (read my review here), the book spotlights trends in culture, life, and faith. This 2018 edition adds a feature, “The Truth About a Post-Truth Society.” (Shocking stats! Just 36% agree that the church “…has my best interest at heart.”)

As you—truthfully—document trends for your 2019-2021 Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan, you’ll want to read the following articles/sections—or delegate them to your Strategic Planning Task Force (you do have a task force, right?):• Glossary—Theolographics (defines a “post-Christian”)• The “Fake News” Phenomenon (and what’s to blame)• Who Prays for Donald Trump?• The Pastoral Credibility Crisis• Gen Z Views on Sexuality• One in Three Teens Is Cyber Bullied• What Do You Hope Your Child Will Obtain From Their Education?• Degrees of Preparation: The top three things pastors wish they had been better prepared for• Busyness: A New Family Tradition

Barna gives us a LOT to think about, but allow me to add more complexity to your planning process. Donald Rumsfeld always used four planning steps whether at Fortune 500 companies or in government. Read more about his second step: “Identify your key assumptions.” In Rumsfeld Rules, he notes that “It is possible to proceed perfectly logically from an inaccurate premise to an inaccurate and unfortunate conclusion.” How do these new trends impact your old assumptions?

MORE BARNA TRENDS• Workplace Romance• Eight in 10 Parents Say Their Job Has Never Been Harder• Volunteers View Volunteering as an Act of Generosity• Barna Identifies Five Reasons the World Is No Longer in Agreement About Anything• 29% of Pastors Don’t Attend Conferences• Prayer Is a Rarity Among Church Teams• The Myth of the Lazy Teen• The Ultimate Financial Goal for Life (segmented by generation)• The Dechurched: America’s Greatest Mission Field

FINALLY…• A Q&A on Team Leadership With Gen. Stanley McChrystal (read my review of his 2015 book, Team of Teams)• More Than Clever Sermons, by Francis Chan• American Ideas About Islam

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:1) Does our strategic plan have at least 10 assumptions that have been affirmed by our customers (and donors)? Are these assumptions based on the latest trends or outdated trends?2) Barna Trends 2018 notes that “eight in 10 parents say their job has never been harder.” How might that new statistic impact our work with staff, volunteers, customers, and donors?

The Strategy Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets encourages teams to be strategic about strategic planning. As Einstein preached, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

So buy two copies of Barna Trends 2018—and delegate your reading and research! And this reminder from the authors of Playing to Win. Lafley and Martin write that that there are five ineffective ways that many leaders inappropriately champion when defining the strategy process: 1) “They define strategy as vision. 2) They define strategy as a plan. 3) They deny that long-term (or even medium-term) strategy is possible. 4) They define strategy as the optimization of the status quo. 5) They define strategy as following best practices.”

Once you have your strategy nailed down, you may need a re-branding process. If so, click here for a free 57-page eBook on ministry branding, by Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media.

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Looking for new ways to communicate your mission—with messages that won’t be lost in the sea of kitten videos and fake news? Check out the innovative work from Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video). Click here.

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, frequent flyer miles, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As a board member and raving fan of Christian Community Credit Union (a non-profit), we proudly list the credit union as our top pick for serving your financial services needs.